All Blacks at full strength as the French reshuffle

NEW ZEALAND coach John Mitchell last night outlined his intentions to end the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup campaign on a winning note by naming a full-strength side for the third place play-off.

But his opposite number Bernard Laporte, hamstrung by a set of players mentally and physically exhausted from their semi-final defeat to England, has taken the long-term view.

France have made 13 changes for Thursday night's clash in Sydney, with centre Tony Marsh and prop Sylvain Marconnet the only survivors from the 24-7 defeat at the weekend.

"It's very difficult to get back after such a tough game, all of our guys are mentally exhausted," said France coach Laporte.

The French were always going to be without captain Fabien Galthie, who decided he would rather his final rugby match be a World Cup semi-final than the much-maligned play-off.

Olivier Milloud was ruled out with a neck injury, Christophe Dominici twisted his knee and flanker Serge Betsen faces a judiciary hearing tomorrow night into an alleged kick at an England players.

The French side will be captained by hooker Yannick Bru and features Dimitri Yachvili at scrum-half for only his second start of the tournament.

Team manager Joe Maso attempted to put a positive spin on the announcements, stressing France were now casting their minds forward to the 2007 World Cup on home soil.

"It's a fresh team, they are ready. They will be out to win because we have had a very positive World Cup," he said.

Frederic Michalak will start from the bench after suffering in the torrential Sydney rain on Sunday, with Gerald Merceron to start at fly-half.

He will oppose Carlos Spencer, who has begun every one of New Zealand's World Cup games this year.

The only change Mitchell has made to the starting XV is at scrum-half, where Australian-born Steve Devine will start ahead of Byron Kelleher, while Carl Hoeft comes on to the bench for Kees Meeuws.

Mitchell is attempting to go one better than at the last World Cup, where John Hart lost to South Africa in the play-off and resigned the following morning.

"It's important because there is something to salvage for us as a group," said Mitchell, whose side was voted team of the year at the International Rugby Players Association awards yesterday.

"For the international players, it's an opportunity for them to finish their international program on a high. We've put the defeat behind us. We have to this is another Test match, a Test match against France and we have to deal with that and our focus is on that now," he said.